Not long ago, in a theater near you, a film called "Above the Law" started playing featuring a new leading man by the name of Stephen Segal. The film displayed promise with interesting martial arts, and a new action star was born. Over the next few years, more movies featuring Segal were doled out, all with a similar theme, until the now bloated star was on the verge of "straight-to-video" releases. Then, in 2001, he taps a new market segment when rising rap artist DMX co-stars with him in "Exit Wounds," and the now Hip-Hop Segal was reborn. The question remained, however, was the film a success based on the popularity of the legion of DMX fans, or was Segal really back?

In an attempt to cash in on the Hip-Hop Segal yet again, he teams up with yet another rap star (Ja Rule) this week in "Half Past Dead." Ja Rule, however, has already become a cross-over success himself, having been featured in a duet with Jennifer Lopez this past year on Top 40 radio. Segal now seems to be taking a back seat to his up-and-coming rappers-turned-actor co-stars, and because of this, he may just ride all the way to the bank.

In "Half Past Dead," Segal plays Sasha, a professional car thief who gets recruited by his friend Nicholas Frazier (Ja Rule), to join Sonny Ekvall's "family" of thieves. However, when the car heist goes bad and the FBI show up, Nick and Sasha get hauled off to prison, but not just any prison. You see, Alcatraz has been reopened as "New Alcatraz," the prison of the future for only the hardest of criminals (I guess stealing cars is hard-core). Soon after their arrival on The Rock, a sophisticated gang infiltrates the prison to kidnap a death-row inmate before he is the island prison's first execution victim. It seems the prisoner stole $200 million in gold bouillon, and is determined to go to the grave with the secret of where he hid it.

In between all this we get scores of gun battles and martial arts, complete with some Matrix-style flips and spins. The infiltrating hoard even has some interesting characters, with their suave leader Donny (Morris Chestnut) and a nicely toned 49er-Six (Nia Peeples looking sexy), who is very Trinity-ish in black leather and trench coat.

Unfortunately, as Segal tries to strut his stuff, he only looks ridiculously out of place. Heavy-chinned and overweight, he goes through the motions of his scenes, but where his initial film's fight scenes were poetry in motion, these are almost boring and labored. He should really stick to the close up acting, for he actually comes across being somewhat wise in his ramblings. Picture a 60-year-old Shao-Lin monk (or any monk, for that matter); while it relays wisdom to hear and see one speak, watching one try to beat up a prison guard half his age is almost pathetic.

Ja Rule is really the stand out of the film, but even his "thug" appeal is waning. He takes his bumps and bruises (it's refreshing to see him actually get beat up, unlike Segal), but gets up fighting and spitting out the one-liners like a champ. While most of the dialogue throughout the film is somewhat poor, and Ja Rule gets a few of them, he otherwise puts in a solid performance.

The real down fall of the movie isn't the action, the acting, or even the story (which is in almost all action films sketchy). With a film with such a heavy reliance on a rap soundtrack, I found it almost laughable that all of the songs, which are predominantly featured, are all edited versions. I'm assuming that this is to garner the PG-13 rating, but I've never seen a movie in a theater that is already edited for television. Yes, there a few bad words thrown about by the prison inmates, but when a booming soundtrack is being played and the vocals are echoing "Yeah! Mother ------ ! Mother ------ ! Mother ------ !" it was, well, bizarre to say the least. The film would have probably played better with an 'R' rating, so there could have also been some good scenes thrown in with the music.

In the end, the movie is really not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Yes, the plot is holier than Swiss cheese, and the action is forced, but then what do you go to action movies for? Guns flaring, bodies flying, explosions, humor, and a bloated action star about sums it up if that's what you're into. And hey, at least it's not as bad as "Ecks Vs. Sever," so take it for what it's worth.